I’m going to be writing my paper on a song called “Crooked Smile” by J.Cole, J.cole or Jermaine Cole, was originally born in Germany. When he was 8 months old he and his mother moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina. He attended St. Johns University and graduated with great distinction, he got introduced to music when he was 12 by a family member and ever since then he has been infatuated with rap music and the art of storytelling through music. I feel as though the thesis of this song is simply this, why feel the need to impress someone who doesn’t care about you or why let your insecurities stop you from being great? I also sense that there is an underlying meaning inside the song that promotes not catering to the conformity of society, such as you don’t need a “perfect” body and an amazing face just to be a star to yourself. With that being said the tone of this story is that you shouldn’t be worried about what other people think of you because the only thing that matters is what you think of yourself, he refers to his teeth in the song where he says, “A perfect smile is more appealing but it 's funny how My shit is crooked look at how far I done got without it, I keep my twisted grill, just to show the kids it 's real.” Which is a perfect symbolic line because it shows the listener that he isn’t just saying this, this is something he actually cares about and lives by. The emotions that are stirred up from the listener is a feeling of hope because we realize that